James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash dominated the 24th Annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards on Wednesday night, securing seven wins including the prestigious Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature award. The ceremony, held at the Beverly Hilton, recognized the film’s groundbreaking visual achievements, further solidifying its position as a frontrunner for the upcoming Academy Award in the same category.
The film’s success at the VES Awards encompassed a broad range of technical categories. In addition to the top prize, Avatar: Fire and Ash was recognized for Outstanding Character in a Photoreal Feature, specifically for the villainess Varang, portrayed by Oona Chaplin. Further accolades included wins for Outstanding CG Cinematography, Outstanding Environment in a Photoreal Feature, Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project, Outstanding Effects Simulation in a Photoreal Feature, and the Emerging Technology Award, which was given to the Kora Fire Toolset. The only category where the film was nominated but did not win was Outstanding Compositing &. Lighting in a Feature, where it lost to the racing sequences in F1.
This marks the third time a film in the Avatar franchise has won the top VES Award, placing it second only to the Planet of the Apes franchise, which has four wins. The original Avatar won six VES Awards in 2010, while Avatar: The Way of Water took home nine in 2023, bringing the franchise’s total VES statuettes to 22.
Several winners from Avatar: Fire and Ash acknowledged the late Jon Landau, the film’s producer, who passed away in 2024.
Netflix and Sony Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters also garnered significant recognition, winning three awards in the animation categories: Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature, Outstanding Character in an Animated Feature for Rumi, and Outstanding Effect Simulations in an Animated Feature. The film, which has been streamed over 482 million times and boasts 11 billion streams of its soundtrack, recently swept the Annie Awards.
Sinners, currently leading the Oscar race with a record 16 nominations, received the VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.
Historically, the VES Awards have not consistently predicted the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Since 2013, only five winners of the top VES prize have gone on to win the Oscar. Last year, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes won the VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, but Dune: Part Two ultimately claimed the Oscar.
Other winners included Zootopia 2 for Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature, Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode, and BMW’s “Heart of Joy: Meet Okto the Octopus” for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial. Andor and Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age were the only television series to win multiple awards, each taking home two. Additional television awards went to The Residence, IT: Welcome to Derry, The Last of Us, and Ghosts of Yōtei.
Jerry Bruckheimer was honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Joseph Kosinski, while Wētā Workshop co-founder Richard Taylor received the VES Visionary Award, presented by Adam Savage.
2026 VES Award Winners:
- Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature: Avatar: Fire and Ash (Richard Baneham, Peter Litvack, Eric Saindon, Nicky Muir, Steve Ingram)
- Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters (Joshua Beveridge, Jacky Priddle, Benjamin Hendricks, Clara Chan)
- Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; “The Big Freeze” (Russell Dodgson, Tracey Gibbons, Francois Dumoulin, Gavin McKenzie)
- Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature: Sinners (Michael Ralla, James Alexander, Nick Marshal, Espen Nordahl, Donnie Dean)
- Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode: The Residence; “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Seth Hill, Tesa Kubicek, John Nelson, Gabriel Vargas)
- Outstanding Character in an Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters; Rumi (Sophia (Seung Hee) Lee, Andrea Matamoros, Marc Souliere, Joshua Beveridge)
- Outstanding Character in an Episodic, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project: It: Welcome to Derry; “The Thing in the Dark;” The Pickle Monster (Philip Harris-Genois, Pierric Danjou, Chloe Ostiguy, Jonathan Bourdu)
- Outstanding Character in a Photoreal Feature: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Varang: Leader of the Ash Clan (Stephen Clee, Stuart Adcock, Keven Norris, Joseph Kim)
- Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Simulating Pandora (Nicholas Illingworth, Sarah C. Farmer, James Robinson, Ryan Bowden)
- Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters (Filippo Maccari, Nikolaos Finizio, Daniel La Chapelle, Srdjan Milosevic)
- Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Episode, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project: Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age; The Big Freeze (Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Schuleman, Kevin Tarpinian)
- Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature: F1: The Movie; Modern Race and POV Footage (Hugo Gauvreau, Chris Davies, Raushan Raj, Amaury Rospars)
- Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Commercial: BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus” (Alex Kulikov, Jack Harris, Adam Chabane, Nicola Borsari)
- Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in an Episode: The Last of Us; “Through the Valley;” A Storm of Ice, Fire and Flesh (Tobias Wiesner, Mark Julien, Owen Longstaff, Brendan Naylor)
- Outstanding Special (Practical) Effects in a Photoreal Project: Andor; “Who Are You?” (Luke Murphy, Dean Ford, Jody Eltham, Darrell Guyon)
- Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project: Azimuth (Thomas Teisseire, Cassandre Cinier, Martin Bluy, Mathis Giraudeau)
- Emerging Technology Award: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Kora Fire Toolset (Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin, John Edholm, Murali Ramachari, Aleksandr Isakov)
- Outstanding CG Cinematography: Avatar: Fire and Ash (Steve Deane, AJ Briones, Zachary Brake, Andrew Moffett)
- Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project: The Wizard of Oz at Sphere (Ben Grossmann, Tamara Watts Ken, Dr. Irfan Essa, Matt Dougan, Glenn Derry)
- Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project: Avatar: Fire and Ash; The Windtraders’ Gondola (Michael Smale, Sam Sharplin, Joe W. Churchill, Jacqi Dillon)
- Outstanding Visual Arts in a Real-Time Project: Ghost of Yōtei (Jason Connell, Matt Vainio, Joanna Wang, Jasmin Patr)
- Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial: BMW; “Heart of Joy | Meet Okto the Octopus” (Tom Raynor, Helen Tang, Jack Harris, Alex Kulikov)
- Outstanding Environment in a Photoreal Feature: Avatar: Fire and Ash; Bridgehead Industrial City (Gianluca Pizzaia, Steve Bevins, Dziga Kaiser, Zsolt Máté)
- Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature: Zootopia 2; Marsh Market (Limei Z. Hshieh, Alexander Nicholas Whang, Joshua Fry, Ryan DeYoung)
- Outstanding Environment in an Episodic, Commercial, Game Cinematic, or Real-Time Project: Andor; “Welcome to the Rebellion;” The Senate District (John O’Connell, Falk Boje, Hasan Ilhan, Kevin George)
